N. Nagaraj
Positioning Agricultural Economics to address issues in education, research, and policy outreach
I. Rural background
Born and brought up in an agricultural family in rural Karnataka, I completed my primary and middle school education in a neighbouring village and my high school and pre-university education in Chintamani town. I also worked on our farm, which was an integral part of our livelihood, and this experience motivated me to pursue studies in Agriculture.
II. Education and academic profile
I received my BSc (Agri), MSc (Agri) and PhD (Agril. Econ) degrees at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. I did Post Doctoral work at the University of Colorado, USA, as a Fulbright Scholar. My farm experience, along with this academic background, helped me gain deeper insights into agricultural and rural development issues.
III. Professional Experience at UAS Bangalore
I started my career as a Research Assistant at UAS Bangalore and subsequently served the University in different cadres as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor. I taught courses in Agricultural Economics at both UG and PG levels and adopted innovative teaching methods, using relevant field-based examples to improve the understanding of economic principles and concepts, and their application to real-world situations. This approach inspired many students to pursue their Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics.
I focused on bridging the gap between academic learning and job market needs, and on training students to face future challenges and analyse critical issues in various domains of agriculture and rural development. I also guided MSc and PhD students to become proficient in data collection, and in the use of digital and econometric tools for data analysis and interpretation. As Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, I provided academic leadership in formulating programmes and policies, and promoted synergy and excellence in teaching, research, and outreach.
I secured several research projects from national and international organizations, aimed at building human capital as well as infrastructure in the Department of Agricultural Economics. With my international exposure, I had the privilege of collaborating with many national and international research projects sponsored by USAID, IFPRI, World Bank and ICAR, generating extramural grants and enabling many fellowships benefiting PG students. I successfully implemented sustainable cost-effective agricultural technologies generated by UAS in selected villages of Karnataka from 2004-2007.
IV. Awards and recognitions
In recognition of my academic and research work, I received several professional honours and awards. These honours include the Jawaharlal Nehru award (1995) by ICAR for my Ph.D. Thesis entitled “Groundwater Irrigation from Low Yielding Bore wells in Hard rock areas of Karnataka─An economic analysis” a French postdoc fellowship at the National Research Institute, INRA, in France; Visiting Fellowships at Kyoto University, Japan, and the University of Arizona, USA; Fellow of the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (2014) for lifetime contribution to the field of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development; and awards for the best published papers from ISAE and the Agricultural Economics Research Review (2022). ICRISAT honoured me with the Outstanding Partnership Award in 2014, in recognition of contributions to enhancing the livelihoods of smallholder dryland cereal farmers in South Asia.
As Principal Economist at ICRISAT, I provided leadership, vision, and direction to project partners on targeting and priority setting through baseline surveys, impact assessment of improved technologies, and on monitoring, tracking adoption and diffusion pathways of improved cultivars.
V. Policy contributions
Some of my key research outputs facilitating policy include designing innovative methodologies for costing groundwater used for irrigation and valuing negative externalities, and for developing economic packages of practices for principal crops by including borewell irrigation costs. I also estimated the economic impacts of watershed development interventions on groundwater recharge, and on the productivity and income of the farmers; and of micro-irrigation on water savings, productivity, and relative profitability. Besides, I also quantified the incremental net benefits accruing to the farmers from adopting contract farming of high-value crops under assured markets. The economic evaluation of technologies, interventions, practices, and innovations helped frame suitable policies for wider dissemination and upscaling of these technologies/practices to the farming community.
VI. Suggestions for future economists
My suggestions to the future generations of scientists/economists include cultivating lifelong learning; developing passion for the subject under study; proper mentoring of students to face the challenges; and to become future fit, adopting an interdisciplinary approach; focusing on quality work; staying up to date with emerging analytical tools; and maintaining professional integrity always.